Sahana Ghosh

1 month ago | nature.com | Sahana Ghosh

Gaganyaan astronaut-designate and airforce pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla, will juggle tardigrades, algae, and spindly human muscle cells in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as the Axiom-4 mission blasts off on 29 May 2025 from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre.

1 month ago | nature.com | Sahana Ghosh

In the misty hills of Meghalaya, researchers have uncovered new populations of Elaeocarpus prunifolius1, a rare relative of the prayer bead tree. The discovery, guided by machine-learning models, offers a glimmer of hope for the species. But with few mature trees, limited legal protection, and mounting logging and harvesting pressures, its future is precarious.

2 months ago | nature.com | Sahana Ghosh

A bacterium first discovered aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has now been linked to at least 13 human infections worldwide, including in India1. Scientists are racing to map the spread of Kalamiella piersonii, a multidrug-resistant microorganism that appears to have adapted seamlessly to both spaceflight and human hosts. “It’s a novel pathogen — not alarming, but worth tracking,” said Georgios Miliotis, a microbiologist at the University of Galway in Ireland.

Feb 24, 2025 | nature.com | Sahana Ghosh

India’s first crewed deep-sea submersible, Matsya 6000, successfully completed wet tests in the Bay of Bengal earlier this month, marking a critical step toward its 2026 mission into one of Earth's least explored frontiers. Lowered 10 meters into the sea from a port in Chennai, the craft underwent eight submersions, half of them crewed, to assess its life-support and maneuvering capabilities.

Feb 16, 2025 | nature.com | Sahana Ghosh

In a high-security data centre in northern India, genetic blueprints from 10,000 individuals across 83 ethnic groups are stored under layers of encryption. This vast dataset, collected through the country’s largest genomic sequencing exercise, could reshape the future of medicine and science for its citizens. The information is anonymized and double-blinded, ensuring that even researchers analyzing the data cannot trace sequences back to individuals.